Magister Artium - MA / The problem explored relates to the dearth in studies exploring semiotic resources other than language in the study of mediated discourses in the media; public broadcasting in particular. Gilje (2010) laments that although manipulation of different genres and modalities has accelerated in the production of movies, documentaries and soapies due to developments in media technologies, there have been very few studies on the subject. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the Isidingo producers use new technologies and editing tools to merge and/or manipulate different semiotic material in the production of Isidingo. I investigated how different stories and narratives are infused into the storylines and how the producers are re-figuring socio-cultural-histories as semiotic resources in the production of Isidingo. This involved a determination of how storylines and other semiotic resources are transformed in Isidingo for aesthetic and communicative effect. The idea was to explore the socio-historical trajectory as semiotic material in time and space. In addition, I explored how the producers draw on and manipulate different genres (e.g. politics, advertisements, legal drama) which are often infused in the storylines in the production of the soap opera. The focus here was on the blurring of generic boundaries as Isidingo producers’ use of multiple genres within the soap opera for aesthetic and communicative effect. I also explored how local and international topical issues are re-contextualised, intertextualised and resemiotised in the local Isidingo storylines. The idea was to do a multi-semiotic analysis of Isidingo as a soap opera, focusing on the reproduction of semiotic material. This entailed an ethnographic approach to data collection and analysis, which included nine randomly selected aired episodes of the soap opera. I found that this soap opera heavily depends on societal discourses such as sociocultural- histories, language-in-use and popular culture as its resource for composing believable plotlines. These everyday discourses are strategically used by the producers to recreate reality into the fictional world by demonstrating semiotic remediation and resemiotisation as discourse practices. I conclude that the producers recycle issues from the real world and recontextualise them into the fictional world in order to evoke viewer involvement (transparent immediacy) and to infuse multiple media (hypermediacy) for extended meanings. In addition to this, technology such as gadgetry, social networks and software are reconstructed in order to subliminally advertise these products to the viewers. I also conclude that the producers of Isidingo treat language in the soap opera as social practice. This makes it possible for the producers to create characters with multiple identities to depict different social roles and voices. By bringing in real life aspects, the soap opera serves as both fiction and reality.

Drawing and coloring have been part of young students text making as  longas the writing system has been used, but with the increased use of digital tools and an enlarged focus on accountability of today there is a reinforced educational interest to understand what constitutes multimodal student texts in the context of classroom practice. This thesis project overall aim is to highlight and discuss the opportunities and difficulties in the assessment of language and knowledge-developing multimodal text work in a multilingual educational context.Conceptually the study is grounded in sociocultural theories, in sociosemiotic theory and in multiliteracies research. The methods used consist of qualitative multimodal text analysis and semi-structured interviews with students and their teacher.The three empirical studies were carried out, each having a different perspective. The first study looks at the text production of students in an integrated work of drawing, coloring and writing. The second study focuses how students reason when they choose to draw, write or both draw and write when they report to their teacher what they have learned. The third study discusses what the teacher highlights when assessing her students’ multimodal text productions. Overall, the results show that the semiotic resources, images and color, dominate students’ text productions and that the teacher attaches great importance to the illustrations, but that she, despite the best intentions, has trouble using multimodal criteria when assessing the students’ different ways of expressions and semiotic resources into a whole. It seems to be problematic for the teacher to allow students to freely interpret and independently design the task while she at the same time intends to make an overall assessment of how the content is presented. The results also indicate that it is difficult  for  the  students  to  verbalize  their  thoughts on the assessment and in practice; the teacher more often is focused on assessing abilities relating to how thoroughly the students carry out the process of documenting rather than encouraging the students to develop and express their knowledge. Finally, the thesis concludes with discussing the content of an ongoing need for research, especially regarding the consequences it may have for younger students, whatever language background they have. / <p>Ytterligare delarbeten</p><p>Borgfeldt, E., &amp; Lyngfelt, A. (2017). ”Jag ritade först sen skrev jag”. Elevperspektiv på multimodal textproduktion i årskurs 3. Forskning om undervisning och lärande 2017: 1 vol. 5, s. 64-88. http://www.forskul.se/tidskrift/nummer18/jag_ritade_forst_sen_skrev_jag_ __elevperspektiv_pa_multimodal_textproduktion_i_arskurs_3Borgfeldt, E. (2017).</p><p>Multimodal textproduktion i årskurs 3 – analys av en lärares bedömning. Educare: 2017: 1, s. 118-151. Malmö: Lärande och samhälle, Malmö högskola. https://www.mah.se/upload/FAKULTETER/LS/Dokument%20LS/Educa re%2017.1%20muep.pdf</p>

Abstract Affordance and choice: performing music in lower secondary school The purpose of this study is to elucidate affordances and meaning-making processes where students in Compulsory lower secondary education learn to play music together in music class. The data consists of a series of observed music lessons, performances and stimulated recall interviews in two 8th form classes, video recorded in the course of one term. The analysis focuses on students’ and their teacher’s musical interaction and sign making during music class. In order to explore multimodal aspects of sign making in teaching and learning, the study rests on a theoretical framework of social-semiotic multimodality and design theory of learning. Nine students, strategically selected, were observed more frequently than the rest. Excerpts of their singing and playing music on different occasions were transcribed into scores in which musical notation together with other graphic signs and written descriptions represent the events. The scores visualise mul- timodal aspects of musical interaction, which made a 'fine grained' analysis of meaning-making processes possible. Further, an analysis was made of how the students and their teacher expressed themselves about the playing and learning and how this related to their observed actions. The result reveals how the teacher’s physical and verbal communicative sign combinations and choice of repertoire conveyed several layers of mean- ing by means of instructions for playing and by references to different dis- courses and genres. During lessons the principle of recognition was present in all of the teacher's sign making but it might be expressed in different modes including expected actions that surprised, amused and helped students to link different musical parameters together. Through transmodal transla- tions of the teacher’s signs, students, linked short fragments of their parts together, and taking turns with the teacher, made longer musical lines. It was found that students’ activities and utterances indicated that a shared sense of meaning and acceptance took precedence over personal musical wishes and preferences. The study contributes to a close insight and understanding of how young people's meaning-making processes may be manifested in music 'teaching- and-learning' in heterogeneous classes, as well as of the significance of teachers’ sign-making in that process. The results of the study warrant a discussion of how musical learning is made possible and is restricted de- pending on how music teaching in schools is designed. Keywords: music teaching, musical interaction, meaning making, semiotic resources, re-design, transmodality, dialogue / <p>Disputationen äger rum på Kungl. Musikhögskolan i Stockholm men sker i samarbete med Lunds universitet.</p>

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a rapidly growing area of investigation that concerns itself with the attention to language, cultural objects and images displayed in public spaces. Prompted by caveats of the earlier traditional studies which included counting the visibility of languages, the fixity of signs, coupled with methodological issues that lacked data triangulation, new approaches emerged. In this present study, framed as A Social Semiotic Analysis of Mini-Bus Taxis as Mobilescapes in Cape Town, specific inquiry about the emergence of language use through an analysis of the evolution of messages that are inscribed on taxis that transport people within Cape Town and between Cape Town and other cities around South Africa is made to disentangle these caveats. / 2023

The overall aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of mathematical subject language regarding three semiotic resources, written language, images and mathematical symbols. The theses also investigates high- and low-performingstudents encounter with mathematical subject language. Based on previous research on language and from a theoretical foundation based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and social semiotics, four meaning dimensions – packing, precision, personification and presentation – were identified as central in academic language in general and in mathematical subject language. A didactically based reception theoretical perspective has been used for an analysis of high and low achieving students' encounter with the mathematical subject language. The thesis comprises three studies each examining the mathematical subject language in TIMSS 2011 from various angles. The analyzes were conducted on four content areas algebra, statistics, geometry and arithmetic in the Swedish version of the international study Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 (TIMSS). In a summary, the results showed that the mathematical subject language was used in different ways in the four content areas in TIMSS where colloquial and subject-specific forms of languages had different roles and were expressed in varying degrees by the written language, images and mathematical symbols. Thus each content area was expressed by its own register which means that is not sufficient to talk about mathematical subject language as one single language. The result shows that two forms of language, subject specific and everyday language were used parallel in the TIMSS material. The subject specific forms were most salient in algebra and geometry and the more everyday forms of language were more common in statistics and arithmetic. The results from the correlation analyses indicated that fewer students managed the encounter with tasks in algebra and geometry when they were expressed by subject specific language. In contrast, the results indicated that students were able handle the encounter with the more colloquial expressions of the content areas statistics and arithmetic.

The aim of this thesis is to study the conditions surrounding young students’ text production in the subject of History. The study, which was performed within a class in grade 4, describes a project where the students produced individual books about the Middle Ages. The study analyzes the educational resources that the students were offered to produce a chapter on the Black Death and how nine students made use of these resources in their texts. Three resourses were analyzed: the teachers’ oral storytelling, the instructions and the designated chapter in the textbook. The material, which was collected through an ethnographic approach with participant observation and interviews, consists of field notes, films, photographs, student texts and teaching materials. The resources were analyzed through sociocultural and socio­semiotic methods. The results show that the oral communication is dominated by the teachers’ storytelling which is perceived as interes­ting and engaging by the students. This is especially true for the dramatized parts that seem to have a potential for providing a deep contextualization of the content. However, the students opportunities to formulate and discuss the content before producing their own texts are limited. The history textbook provides subject-specific knowledge as well as typical features of school history texts, but as the text is mainly processed individually the students are not made aware of this. The results indicate that both the students and the teacher perceive the project as an exercise in writing and that the content subsequently appears to be secondary. This is likely due to the fact that the instructions are general writing instructions rather than content-based or subject-specific. The texts produced by the students show a variation in length, number of headlines, images, and use of resources (written and oral, or just written). The instructions urge the students to retell the designated text ”in their own words" and explicitly forbid copying. The results show that the instruction is perceived in two different ways. Five students use the textbook as their main resource avoiding copying by developing various strategies such as exchanging or skipping words, summarizing paragraphs or combining chunks of existing sentences into new ones. Four students take a different approach and base their texts mainly on the oral storytelling, which might be seen as an example of retelling in one’s own words. The existence of two different strategies can be explained by the fact that the resources are part of two simultaneous but contradictory aspirations: the oral classroom practice which maximizes engagement and the pursuit of empathy and the written practice which aims at critical training where source awareness and avoidance of copying are stressed as important. Since there are few links between the two classroom practices the students are put in a position where they have to transform either the text book or the oral story into a new text. Previous research shows that learning in History is promoted by the ability to generalize and understand the connection between events, the ability to draw conclusions from multiple sources and the ability to relate to the content with historical empathy. Writing and text production in History therefore need to take account of the subject specific ways of communicating and creating knowledge. The results from this study also underline the importance of using and recognizing semiotic resources such as images and drama as an important part of young students’ learning in History.

No description available.

Submitted by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2017-05-12T19:04:17Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Oliveira, Raquel - Currículo ecológico de língua e literatura.pdf: 3808117 bytes, checksum: a6fd19af3dab991c0fca1f5f1a2faa6d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2017-05-12T21:24:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Oliveira, Raquel - Currículo ecológico de língua e literatura.pdf: 3808117 bytes, checksum: a6fd19af3dab991c0fca1f5f1a2faa6d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-12T21:24:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Oliveira, Raquel - Currículo ecológico de língua e literatura.pdf: 3808117 bytes, checksum: a6fd19af3dab991c0fca1f5f1a2faa6d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-16 / Sem bolsa / Este estudo objetiva verificar a construção de sentido que emerge a partir das interações frente à proposta de produção de texto mediada por recursos semióticos com o uso das tecnologias digitais móveis. A investigação se deu em uma disciplina de Língua e Literatura III, com 02 hora/aula semanais, nos cursos Técnicos em Informática e Mecatrônica integrados ao Ensino Médio de um Instituto Federal de Educação. Para alcançar o objetivo principal foi desenvolvido um currículo com o intuito de integrar de ações colaborativas por meio de tecnologias digitais móveis com recursos semióticos e para averiguar como os estudantes demostravam a compreensão da escrita literária clássica por meio de recurso semiótico, bem como, relacionar a expressão semiótica apresentada com a leitura que fizeram da obra clássica lida. A fundamentação teórica para a construção desta pesquisa e do currículo proposto foi pautada na revisão teórica sobre as práticas de M-Learning (TRAXLER, 2009; SACCOL, 2010), sobre a colaboração como característica inerente ao ser humano (TOMASELLO, 2003, 2010; PINKER, 2007), no arcabouço ecológico (VAN LIER 2000, 2002, 2004a, 2004b, 2007, 2014; BAKTHIN, 1981) para a construção do currículo intitulado CELL (Currículo Ecológico de Língua e Literatura) pautado no desenvolvimento de consciência, autonomia e autenticidade. A metodologia de pesquisa consistiu na aplicação da proposta do currículo e coleta dos dados obtidos em grupos fechados do Facebook onde os participantes deveriam interagir semanalmente sobre as obras. Os dados foram analisados qualitativamente de acordo com as características do Currículo e da linguagem sobre uma perspectiva ecológica. Os resultados obtidos indicam que é possível integrar as práticas de aprendizagem colaborativa com o uso de tecnologias móveis por meio do currículo desenvolvido. Também identificamos a construção de significado sobre as leituras realizadas nos recursos semióticos trazidos nas postagens dos estudantes. Ainda analisamos em suas interações que a significação dos clássicos lidos se deu pela associação do que leram com as suas vivências e experiências. A facilidade de acesso aos dispositivos móveis e a necessidade de investir nas práticas de letramentos midiáticos representaram fatores importante para a implementação do currículo proposto. Identificamos, porém, que o CELL precisa ser qualificado por meio de investigações que experienciem novas práticas em outros contextos e, apesar de as práticas de avaliação serem evidenciadas nos dados, pensamos que novas propostas possam apresenta-las claramente em uma das etapas. / This study aims to verify the construction of meaning that emerges from the interactions with the proposal of text production mediated by semiotic resources with the use of mobile digital technologies. The investigation took place in Language and Literature III subject, with 02 hour/class per week, in Computer Science and Mechatronics certificate programs integrated to High School in a Federal Institute of Education. To achieve the main objective, a curriculum was developed in order to integrate collaborative actions using mobile digital technologies with semiotic resources as well as to investigate how students demonstrated classical literary writing comprehension through a semiotic resource, and also to relate the semiotic expression presented with the reading that they made of the classic work already read. The theoretical framework of this research and the proposed curriculum is based on theoretical review of M-Learning practices (TRAXLER, 2009; SACCOL, 2010), on collaboration as an inherent characteristic to the human being (TOMASELLO, 1999, 2010; PINKER,2007), in the ecological perspective (VAN LIER 2000, 2002a, 2004b, 2007, 2014; BAKTHIN, 1981; PEIRCE, 1977) for the construction of the curriculum entitled ECLL (Ecological Curriculum of Language and Literature) focused on autonomy, authenticity and awareness. The research methodology consisted in applying the curriculum proposal and collecting data obtained in private groups on Facebook where the participants should interact weekly on the works of art. Data were qualitatively analyzed according to curriculum characteristics and language on an ecological perspective. The results indicate that it is possible to integrate the collaborative learning practices with the use of mobile technologies through the developed curriculum. We also identify meaning construction of the performed readings on the semiotic resources brought in the students' posts. Besides, in their interactions we analyzed that the meaning of the classic readings was based on the association of what they read with their background and experiences. Ease of access to mobile devices and the need to invest in media literacy practices were important factors for implementation of the proposed curriculum. However, we identify that the ECLL needs to be qualified through investigations that experience new practices in other contexts and, although the evaluation practices are evidenced in data, we think that new proposals might clearly present them in one of the stages.

Music as a hub in school presentationsThe aim of the study is to elucidate how making meaning is constituted when lower secondary pupils play music when giving accounts of other school subjects than music. The empirical material consists of four presenta- tions in the subjects of physics, religion and Swedish, which were filmed during ordinary lessons in a lower secondary school. In addition the data consists of nine filmed stimulated recall interviews with the pupils and their teachers, which were also filmed.Social semiotic multimodality constitutes the study’s theoretical and methodological point of departure. The perspective enables investigation of the pupils’ playing of music and music in its multimodal context, and of how different dimensions of meaning are constructed. The filmed presentations were transcribed into music scores in order to visualise the multimodal events of the presentations. Three different categories of meaning were used, ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning, to analyse how music relates to other modes of communication.The results show how the temporal functions of music serve as frame- work and motor, what the music narrates in relation to the subject content and what interpersonal relations the music communicates. The young peo- ple’s knowledge of music manifests itself in the different accounts as an ability to use and adapt musical knowledge to a context where another sub- ject than music is in focus. The presentations of Swedish are travesties of well-known songs and the pupils stick to the given form. In the other presen- tations the pupils themselves had compiled the music and the result was a form of musical works where the music does not follow any model or certain genre. The informants think that this working method implies that the work is experienced as meaningful both to themselves and to the audience.

<p>Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 &ndash / &nbsp / ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as&nbsp / the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and&nbsp / there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners&rsquo / writing skills. The research also&nbsp / analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners&nbsp / to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic&nbsp / arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal&nbsp / Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to&nbsp / onstruct and convey meaning.&nbsp / The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s)&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent&nbsp / their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing&nbsp / learners&rsquo / writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and&nbsp / factors which build on learners&rsquo / prior experiences and creativity.</p>